Texas Republican Rep. Phil Stephenson has introduced a bill-draft that would require Texans to identify themselves before they use crypto assets like bitcoin. In Texas House Bill No 4371, Stephenson took the institutionalization of digital currencies to an altogether new level. His bill recognized the blockchain technology as a tool that enables users to create […]

Texas Republican Rep. Phil Stephenson has introduced a bill-draft that would require Texans to identify themselves before they use crypto assets like bitcoin.

In Texas House Bill No 4371, Stephenson took the institutionalization of digital currencies to an altogether new level. His bill recognized the blockchain technology as a tool that enables users to create financial aliases.

And, to stop that from happening, the lawmaker proposed that Texas educate its law enforcement agencies on digital currencies and promote the use of verified identity digital currencies.

If enforced, HB 4371 would make a digital currency transaction illegal if the involved sender and receiver are now known to each other. The bill would encourage state departments of banking, securities boards, and others to provide tools to users to distinguish between verified and unverified crypto users. Excerpts:

“[Texas] may not use a digital currency that is not a verified identity digital currency — The Texas Department of Banking, Credit Union Commission, Texas Department of Public Safety, and State Securities Board shall collaborate to encourage the use of verified identity digital currencies.”

Deep Impact or Fizzling Firecracker

With HB 4371, Rep Stephenson might believe that they are on the right course of crypto regulation. If all the cryptocurrency users agree to register their digital currency identities, it will form a bank-like financial system, bringing more stability and adoption to the cryptocurrency space.

But, despite the underlying goodwill, Rep Stephenson hasn’t answered how exactly he would have law enforcement enforce his bill.

To begin with the first problem, HB 4371 requires Texans to be in their best honest avatars. The bill asks them to register their digital currency identities with the government consciously. It is the same as asking Redditors to give up their anonymity, which they fruitfully enjoy because it allows them to say anything they like on social media.

This is a double edged sword for sure and the argument can easily go both ways. When we consider what this means, as with the example of Redditors giving up their anonymity, this is a dangerous inroad to virtual privacy. Privacy is important. It allows us to express un-popular opinions without being attacked. It allows us to add to the conversation in a true way, rather than being forced to parrot an opinion that would be distasteful to the poster.

However, things like AML and KYC exist for a very valid reason and that is to ensure that funds, in whatever format they are in, are not used for nefarious purposes. That may require people giving more details about the transaction they are engaged in but it has a positive ending as it ensures that the funds used from that transaction are not used to harm anyone or participate in illegal actions.

But, there are issues with this proposed legislation. So, the first issue that HB 4371 might run into is the nature of people itself. Meanwhile, the second one is bigger.

There is no way Rep Stephenson’s HB 4371 can stop people from downloading crypto wallets and creating hundreds of anonymous pseudo-identities. Even if his enforcement agencies manage to put a tracker on every public IP in Texas, there is no way they can outsmart people who use VPN services, Tor, etc.

One can take BitTorrent as a bright example. Texans could still be downloading pirated movies and music from the world’s most prominent file-sharing protocol with their servers located somewhere in China – without being caught.

The question then arises is that why a lawmaker would spend vast amounts of resources for catching petty crypto users, primarily when he could utilize the same taxpayer fund to catch giant banking scammers.

]]>The Fourth Largest Private Employer in the US Says No to Visa, May Accept Bitcoinhttps://coinhooked.com/the-fourth-largest-private-employer-in-the-us-says-no-to-visa-may-accept-bitcoin/
Wed, 06 Mar 2019 19:42:12 +0000https://coinhooked.com/?p=2676

It is official, Kroger, the $22.35B, the US largest supermarket chain by revenue complete with 3,028 locations effectively becoming the fourth largest private employer is officially tired of Visa credit cards. Like most centralized payment facilitators, Visa is quickly turning out to be fast—high throughput but expensive. This has the potential to be extremely exciting […]

It is official, Kroger, the $22.35B, the US largest supermarket chain by revenue complete with 3,028 locations effectively becoming the fourth largest private employer is officially tired of Visa credit cards. Like most centralized payment facilitators, Visa is quickly turning out to be fast—high throughput but expensive. This has the potential to be extremely exciting and beneficial for the blockchain space as a whole and for all Bitcoin investors certainly.

For this reason, the Chief Financial Officer at the profitable supermarket chain, Mike Schlotman said they will no longer accept Visa Credit cards at any of their Smith’s Food & Drug Stores beginning April 4. Food &Drug Stores has 20,000 employees spread across seven US states operating in 134 branches:

“Visa has been misusing its position and charging retailers excessive fees for a long time. At Smith’s, Visa’s credit card fees are higher than any other credit card brand that we accept.”

As a new innovation, blockchain and cryptocurrencies including middle men, a role played by centralized fund transfer agents like Visa. The fund transfer facilitator has infrastructure in place. But because of the nature of their operations, Visa and similar companies charge a premium for their services.

In contrast, Cryptocurrencies are in the early stages of adoption. Although they may be volatile—of which it will reduce when it is finally mainstream, evidence shows that these networks are cheap, fast, secure and most importantly global.

That means, fees are constant regardless of geography. Add that to censorship resistance, these superior alternatives are immune to local socioeconomic events like hyperinflation. What this may end up proving is that assets like cryptocurrency or Bitcoin are better stores of value than the traditional means of wealth.

This is a blow to Visa. With five types of credit cards–Visa Classic, Gold, Platinum, Signature and Infinite, the decision by Kroger may also change the mind of other chains. If it becomes a global rally, Visa may be forced to reduce their fees as profitability dip despite their presence in more than 200 countries and accessibility from more than 1.9 million ATMs. Visa is the largest credit card issuer in the world.

A Visa Spokesperson, with a care free attitude, responded saying:

“Cardholders are our first priority. Our goal is to ensure that every cardholder can use their Visa card wherever they wish to shop. When consumer choice is limited nobody wins. The Visa network delivers significant value for merchants including access to more customers, increased sales, security and fraud protection, a quick and convenient checkout experience, and ongoing innovation and implementation of the latest technologies. Kroger enjoys all of these benefits, and there is a cost for these services, like any other.”

Anthony Pompliano and Bitcoin Lightning Network Proposal

While tweeting about this decision, a co-founder and partner at Morgan Creek Digital, Anthony Pompliano said his team was ready to meet the Kroger. The aim, he says, is to “hook them up” with the ever expanding Bitcoin Lightning Network.

Moments later, a product Manager of the supermarket chain, going by the Twitter name, @Sophicnick said he was ready to make arrangements.

Hours later, Pomp confirmed their first call:

The Bitcoin Lightning Network is a layer two solution that promises to scale the underlying settlement base. It is a work in progress and in Beta.

Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway recently bashed Bitcoin (BTC) on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” to precede his firm’s world-renowned shareholders meeting. The so-called “Oracle of Omaha,” who is reported to still own a flip phone that might make many reminisce about the turn of the millennium, explained that while blockchain technologies have “importance,” Bitcoin has […]

Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway recently bashed Bitcoin (BTC) on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” to precede his firm’s world-renowned shareholders meeting. The so-called “Oracle of Omaha,” who is reported to still own a flip phone that might make many reminisce about the turn of the millennium, explained that while blockchain technologies have “importance,” Bitcoin has no “unique value at all.” Buffett’s quip, which comes after he infamously called the flagship cryptocurrency “rat poison squared,” is likely in reference to common Joes and Jills’ belief that nothing tangible is backing the value of BTC, as it is ‘printed’ out of ‘thin air’. Buffett referenced this, but in a clear misunderstanding of the way Proof of Work-based blockchains operate, when he stated:

“It doesn’t produce anything. You stare at it all day and the little Bitcoins come out or something like that. It is a delusion, basically.”

The world-renowned investor noted that he feels sorry for Bitcoin holders, explaining that investors in this nascent asset class actively get their hopes up that cryptocurrencies will change their lives. But, Buffett concluded that when you boil BTC down, the capped supply and difficulty system may be “genius,” but the cryptocurrency doesn’t have much of a value and attracts charlatans.

Maybe This Isn’t A Bad Thing For Crypto

While many cryptocurrency diehards took offense, some argue that Buffett’s aversion to Bitcoin is somewhat of a positive sign. Avichal Garg, the managing partner of Electric Capital, recently broke down his thoughts on the subject matter in an extensive thread.

In a tweet that garnered some traction Crypto Twitter, Garg argued that Buffett’s investment thesis is to stick to companies he knows, which don’t include venture-funded startups built in the heart of the Bay Area. This means that by extension, the well-recognized value investor wouldn’t be the best at allocating funds to digital currencies either.

Backing his noticing, Garg went on to break down the States-based Berkshire’s history of involvement with technology companies, both established and nascent. Citing transcripts from 2018’s Berkshire annual meeting, the commentator noted that Buffett openly admitted that he made a mistake back when Amazon and Google, two Silicon Valley darlings, were early-stage firms, as he decided not to make capital allocations.

It is tough though, to knock a technology that you do not know anything about. Whether it is people that you have around you or you personally, investing comes down to people doing due diligence and investigating a technology. With a flip phone, it’s tough to say that you’ve investigated any type of technology. It might actually be quite laughable to state that you stare at little bitcoins come out or something like that. While it is impossible to know about everything, it appears as if the “oracle” has done little to no work on actually finding out what this technology is, who is interested in it and what kinds of deals are already in place.

The Bitcoin Lightning Network, a 2nd layer protocol running the Bitcoin blockchain recently gathered momentum with its Lightning Torch experiment across the globe. The Lightning Network was also the main reason behind the development of Tippin, a Chrome extension released recently for Bitcoin holders. The extension allowed users to send and receive tips over […]

The Bitcoin Lightning Network, a 2nd layer protocol running the Bitcoin blockchain recently gathered momentum with its Lightning Torch experiment across the globe. The Lightning Network was also the main reason behind the development of Tippin, a Chrome extension released recently for Bitcoin holders. The extension allowed users to send and receive tips over Twitter with the help of Bitcoin’s Lightning Network.

According to decryptmedia, the Tippin App, a browser extension which enables the transfer of digital tokens over tweets, recorded a total of 13000 downloads already. This figure, claimed by the app developers, would indicate a prominent shift in interest towards the growing adoption of Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency network.

Sergio Abril, Chief Developer of Tippin, in a recent interview stated,“From the very beginning, I wanted Tippin to be an “easy-to-use” service; Lightning Network micro payments [or tips] made easy. I didn’t want people to struggle with complex signup processes, so I went for a Twitter exclusive signup system.”

Sergio Abril added the QR-code generating Lightning button next to the ‘retweet’ button via Tippin app. He said that the app generated serious interest from users after it was endorsed by Twitter’s Jack Dorsey last week.

Moments like these are landmark moments in the development and acceptance of this technology. With these types of advancements, we have matched and in some cases, surpassed traditional technologies that handle similar types of transactions. With this, we can see bitcoin, ethereum or others used in financial transactions. And with it’s use in financial transactions, cryptocurrency will be able to be used in every single home, every single business and in government.

Although 13000 downloads do not seem very high, especially when compared to “dApps” like social network Steemit with 1.2 million accounts, it is a major positive for the Lightning Network as it is still in the early stages of mass adoption.

The Lightning Network, which has the capacity to run around 3500 nodes, can handle about $3 million worth of Bitcoin transactions.

Bitcoin transaction volume has climbed to levels not seen since January 2018, potentially indicating growing adoption of the Bitcoin network. As we see this technology and the investment portion of the space continue to grow, reaching peak numbers, valuation cannot be far behind. Could this be the start of institutional investors? Could we see […]

Bitcoin transaction volume has climbed to levels not seen since January 2018, potentially indicating growing adoption of the Bitcoin network. As we see this technology and the investment portion of the space continue to grow, reaching peak numbers, valuation cannot be far behind. Could this be the start of institutional investors? Could we see ETF approval and other landmark deals coming in the near future? The trends might point towards yes.

One of the more popular metrics used to gauge the ‘real use’ of a blockchain or dApp is the number of transactions taking place on the platform. Although it is not a perfect metric because of its susceptibility to activities such as wash transactions (analogous to wash trading), especially on platforms with low transaction fees, it still offers an alternative way to evaluate the number of users and the amount of activity taking place on a blockchain.

However, present-day transactions facilitated using the Bitcoin network could be larger if second-layer solutions such as Lightning Network are factored in.

In January of 2018, transaction volumes ranged from a low of 190,000 to a high of 425,000; for 2019, January saw transactions range from a low of 235,000 to a high of 350,000—according to data collected from BitInfoCharts.

Meanwhile, over 2018 transaction volume has grown steadily with less volatility in that volume. Month over month growth could indicate growing functional—rather than speculative—adoption, as suggested by several crypto enthusiasts on different social media outlets.

That said, there is not a clearly established link between the price of bitcoin and the number of transactions taking place on the platform. Although there are many that argue “utility” is the primary driver of price, it stills seems as if the price of bitcoin is primarily driven by speculative fervor. Consequently, whether transaction volumes will translate to sustained price growth is largely unknown.

When factoring what the future will bring for blockchain, we have to consider how the various elements that attract investors will affect the price and overall growth of the space. This would be more of an indicator of where things are going, not necessarily an attractor.

Mobile payments firm Square has reported over $166 million in revenue from bitcoin sales last year. The company filed its financial results for Q4 2018 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday, disclosing that it made overall net revenue of $3.3 billion last year, 5 percent of which came from the […]

Mobile payments firm Square has reported over $166 million in revenue from bitcoin sales last year.

The company filed its financial results for Q4 2018 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday, disclosing that it made overall net revenue of $3.3 billion last year, 5 percent of which came from the cryptocurrency buying service within its Cash App.

While bitcoin sales brought in precisely $166,517,000, the cost of purchasing the cryptocurrency for the year was about $165 million. That left the firm with a net profit from bitcoin sales of $1.69 million.

Looking at Square’s quarterly figures, the bitcoin business was notably better in the second half of last year.
Specifically, the firm took $95 million in bitcoin revenues in the second half, compared with about $71 million in the first half. Profit for the second half was $1.047 million, and was $643,000 in H1.

The firm further disclosed that the carrying value of bitcoin held by the firm was $200,000 as of Dec. 31, 2018. The firm said it assesses the carrying value at each reporting date and records an impairment charge if the carrying value exceeds the fair value. However, loss on bitcoin for the year 2018 was “insignificant.”

Square added bitcoin buying and selling option to its Cash App back in November 2017, initially only to a small number of users though. Later, in August 2018, the firm expanded the facility to all 50 U.S. states. The firm received a “BitLicense” from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) last June, that allowed it to offer crypto services in the state.

With this we see an opportunity in the fintech sector to support and grow with this technology. Traditional financial businesses like JPMorgan, Chase and others have shied away from cryptocurrencies but others have seen an opportunity to work with and facilitate the onramps from fiat to the crypto world and as this report shows, they have been able to make a substantial amount of money. Considering the low percentage adoption rates at this point, that number could be significantly higher when those rates rise.

Individual states like New York offering licenses to operate and offer crypto services in the state are potentially the earmark of a big move towards acceptance. Can the federal government be far behind?

]]>Overstock is still a retailer but it wants to be a blockchain companyhttps://coinhooked.com/overstock-is-still-a-retailer-but-it-wants-to-be-a-blockchain-company/
Fri, 01 Mar 2019 01:02:43 +0000https://coinhooked.com/?p=2576

Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock and a blockchain evangelist has made no secret of the fact that he wants to run a blockchain business, not a retailer. But investors aren’t exactly sure what that means. “It’s still confusing to most people — even our own investors. Very few have done their homework,” Byrne told […]

Patrick Byrne, the CEO of Overstock and a blockchain evangelist has made no secret of the fact that he wants to run a blockchain business, not a retailer. But investors aren’t exactly sure what that means.

“It’s still confusing to most people — even our own investors. Very few have done their homework,” Byrne told CNN Business on Friday.

That’s why Byrne said he plans to give a lot more detail about the big picture plans for Overstock’s blockchain businesses when it reports its latest earnings sometime in March.

The company has made some moves into blockchain over the past few years.

It launched the Medici Ventures investing firm to focus on blockchain technology, a public digital ledger of transactions, and it is also developing its own tZero security tokens for e-commerce and trading.

With some of the previous announcements, like the one to CNBC in December 2017 that the goal was to reorganize the core Overstock business to go in full on blockchain within 60 to 90 days, investors might seem to be reasonable to be a bit skeptical.

The CEO reiterated his plan to get out of online retail last November, telling the Wall Street Journal he hoped to have a sale done by this February. Investors seem to believe him.

Shares of Overstock (OSTK) have shot up more than 20% since then, even as bitcoin (XBT) prices have tumbled nearly 15% during the same time frame.

Some market watchers believe that it is not about whether or not Overstock goes towards blockchain but who intends to buy the company. There are rumors that Walmart would have interst, if for no other reason than to better compete with Amazon. However, Overstock shares have pulled back sharply as Byrne’s February target draws near without any sign of a deal being imminent. Overstock fell 9% on Thursday.

“It does not surprise me that nothing has happened yet,” said Bill Baker, an analyst with GARP Research. He notes that retail is a notoriously tough and competitive business and that Overstock has been losing money in it.

A sale for Overstock’s retail business could still fetch around a $100 million. Could this help to reinforce the current market value of Overstock at $650 million? Some believe that they are worth that. Overstock is making the right call to focus on the more rapidly growing blockchain world instead of the perennially challenged retail business and that the stock could rally further thanks to tZero and Medici.

With major retailers like Overstock taking a serious interest in crypto, this helps to bring attention to the cause and make other businesses and crypto projects more attractive. When we see Overstock sell their retail business and go full scale into crypto, this will be a major sign that big things are coming for crypto and soon.

In an interesting update, the Nasdaq has begun live listings of two cryptocurrency price indices from United States blockchain and crypto market data company Brave New Coin (BNC), the latter confirmed in a post on Feb. 26. Originally announced earlier this month, the integration of BNC’s Bitcoin Liquid Index (BLX) and Ethereum Liquid Index (ELX) […]

In an interesting update, the Nasdaq has begun live listings of two cryptocurrency price indices from United States blockchain and crypto market data company Brave New Coin (BNC), the latter confirmed in a post on Feb. 26.

Originally announced earlier this month, the integration of BNC’s Bitcoin Liquid Index (BLX) and Ethereum Liquid Index (ELX) will open up new data for clients using Nasdaq’s Global Index Data Service (GIDS).

The move comes ahead of BNC’s plans to launch a separate index tracking the price of Ripple (XRP). The token launched on U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Pro Tuesday, but it remains unknown whether Nasdaq will host the index, which is in the final stages of development.

“The LX [Liquid Index] program was born out of a need for clear and transparent price discovery of liquid cryptographic assets and is a bigger need today then it was back in 2015 when we started this program,” BNC CEO Fran Strajnar commented in the post.

As we see the cryptocurrency landscape begin to shift, we see the markets coming closer and closer together. This is a good signal that governments, investors, finance and the general public will see not only more stories on this front but also get more exposure to this type of technology. As with any new technology, the more exposure we get, the higher the comfort level. As comfort levels increase, we will see less fear of adoption and more excitement, perhaps even more clamoring for adoption. Two specific types of crypto projects, stablecoins and security tokens, presents some powerful opportunities to speed adoption.

A crypto token that passes the Howey Test is deemed a security token. These usually derive their value from an external, tradable asset. Because the tokens are deemed a security, they are subject to federal securities and regulations. If the ICO doesn’t follow the regulations, then they could be subject to penalties.

However, if all the regulations are properly met, then these tokens have immensely powerful use-cases.

“Stable coin” is a term used in cryptocurrency to describe cryptocurrencies meant to hold stable values. For example, Tether (USDT) is a blockchain based asset meant to trade for $1 USD. Tether is a “price-stable cryptocurrency” that is “pegged” to the U.S. dollar.

There are a number of stable coins in circulation today, and a number more have been attempted in the past (with varying degrees of success).

With all of the various corporate deals, laws and regulations helping to normalize not only trading but of how these tools are implemented in the marketplace at large, these types of announcements and pairings of traditional finance and the crypto world can only hasten the diffusion of this technology into the public.

For the first time in a long time, last August to be exact, there are multiple Bitcoin ETF proposals in front of the Securities and Exchange Comission (ETF). The VanEck/SolidX proposal filed with Cboe BZX Exchange has now appeared in Wednesday’s edition of the Federal Register, officially kicking off the 45-day clock to an initial […]

For the first time in a long time, last August to be exact, there are multiple Bitcoin ETF proposals in front of the Securities and Exchange Comission (ETF).

The VanEck/SolidX proposal filed with Cboe BZX Exchange has now appeared in Wednesday’s edition of the Federal Register, officially kicking off the 45-day clock to an initial decision. It joins another bitcoin ETF proposal filed by Bitwise Asset Management with NYSE Arca, which was published in the register last week.

Gabor Gurbacs, director of digital asset strategy at VanEck, told CoinDesk via email that he believes a bitcoin ETF will serve the public interest if approved.

The company has been actively working with regulators, as well as other major market participants, “to bring simplicity, transparency and professional market standards to digital assets,” he said.

VanEck is hoping that this collaboration will let it bring a regulated product with exposure to digital assets to market going forward.

“I … hope that our investment in regulatory and market education, hard work and commitment will be honored when the time comes,” Gurbacs said.

With the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency platforms, markets and tool evolving, maturing and growing rapidly, which definitely gets the notice of business and government. It is not going to be long before we start to see diffusion into the public, business and government sectors at large. That diffusion is an important step for so many different reasons.

Matt Hougan, Bitwise global head of research, told CoinDesk that the crypto ecosystem is “evolving very rapidly,” which may aid in getting a product launched.

“A year ago there was maybe one qualified crypto custodian … and now there are half-a-dozen, and that number will go up from here,” he noted as one example.

There is a large amount of development in the space and a large amount of room to grow as well. The opportunities for business, investing, personal and government change and growth is exponential. This technology creates liberation, empowerment, and transparency, all the while eliminating fraud, waste and redundancy in oversite. What this means is a real advancement of how we live, how we do business and how we govern. By transferring money and transparency back to the people, we are putting the power and control where it should be, in the hands of the people.

“The SEC has been extraordinarily clear in the Dalia Blass letter and in the Winklevoss rejection letter in what they will require before you can list a product. It’s up to folks in the industry … to meet those standards. All you can ask for a regulator is to lay out clear bars you have to clear before they will approve something.”

[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.19.13″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”3.19.13″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”3.19.13″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.19.13″] It’s time to debunk a much used and repeated myth of blockchain technology, Bitcoin cannot do smart contracts. One of the main selling points of cryptos like Ethereum and EOS is their ability to execute smart contracts, with their new approaches being necessary to unlock the true power […]

It’s time to debunk a much used and repeated myth of blockchain technology, Bitcoin cannot do smart contracts. One of the main selling points of cryptos like Ethereum and EOS is their ability to execute smart contracts, with their new approaches being necessary to unlock the true power of blockchain technology.

This is not completely true. With Bitcoin’s scripting language being much less expressive than Ethereum’s for example, it is possibly to write certain types of smart contracts on Bitcoin as it currently exists. Three examples of applications of Bitcoin smart contracts include: Bitcoin’s often-hyped Lightning Network; the recently announced Arwen protocol, which dramatically increases security for traders on exchanges; and Abra, which allows users to peg the value of their bitcoin to many other real-world assets.

This topic of whether Bitcoin is useful for smart contracts came up during Casa CTO Jameson Lopp’s recent interview with Epicenter. While sharing his thoughts on the matter, Lopp discussed his view of Bitcoin as a trust anchor, how more expressive smart contracts can be implemented in Bitcoin, and Bitcoin protocol developers’ conservative approach to their work.

“I do think that there is more to [Bitcoin] than just money. I think what we’re trying to do is create this global record of truth — or at least an authoritative record that has no authority behind it,” said Lopp.

The Casa CTO added that people are able to put whatever data they wish in this authoritative record, and he provided specific examples of how this can be done.

“If you’re moving beyond the simple accounting ledger that the Bitcoin protocol supplies, you have to basically create your own protocol, your own new consensus, for whatever that extension is. Whether that is some sort of layer-two network or a sidechain that is pegged to Bitcoin or extension blocks or whatever — there’s a potentially limitless number of ways to do this,” explained Lopp.

In terms of Bitcoin’s future potential as a platform for smart contracts, Lopp pointed out that there are plenty of Bitcoin developers who are interested in this sort of functionality. However, they disagree with how Ethereum went about doing things. According to Lopp, it comes down to a debate of execution versus verification.

“A lot of the ‘more conservative” Bitcoin developers don’t like having smart contracts that have to get executed by everyone on the network. They rather want to perform the same type of logic but where the actual execution happens privately, and then you’re just providing a proof of the execution that the rest of the world can verify,” explained Lopp.

And this gets into a key difference between Bitcoin and all of the other crypto asset networks out there: alterations to the Bitcoin protocol tend to come at a slower pace.

“Advancements with the Bitcoin base protocol [are] a lot more measured and slower than a lot of other chains for a number of reasons,” said Lopp.

These are all extremely important facets of development to bring up. With Bitcoin being the standard, changes to allow more expression in the potential for them to develop smart contracts has to be measured. Scaring away investors and companies because changes were made too rapidly, and weaknesses were exposed is only going to be detrimental to acceptance of the technology. There is no better way to bring out the “I told you so” crowd than to make a change too quickly and introduce errors, things like security weaknesses, into the code.